Once Upon A Keyblade
by KeybladeMaster97
Summary: When King Mickey sends Roxas on a mission to investigate a new form of power that's rising, Roxas is caught up in a group dubbed The Elementals, an impending war that has the lives of the keybladers at stake & a new power that threatens to take control.
1. Chapter 1: The Mission

**Author's Note: **Hi! This is my first FanFiction, but I've had the idea forever. I wanted to do something different with this FanFiction. I'm combining Kingdom Hearts and slight pop culture references (i.e. music artists, quotes from "real" people & other characters from something other than KH, song lyrics, other series, etc.). They aren't _huge _references, but they're still there. I'll give a recap of any used at the end of each chapter. Oh, and Roxas is a Somebody in this story, but it will be explained how towards about the half way point in the story.

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts or ANY of the pop culture references and never will. All I own is the plot and Elektra.

So, without further ado, the first chapter of _Once Upon A Keyblade..._

**Chapter One: The Mission**

Roxas stared off into the horizon, his mind replaying the events that had awaited him on his return home. He had just gotten back from Destiny Islands, he was visiting Sora, and what he saw when he got back was most unpleasant. Twilight Town, his home for so many years, was entirely engulfed in black. And that could only mean one thing... Heartless.

At first, Roxas didn't know what was going on. He knew something wasn't right, he just couldn't really pinpoint the problem. Then it hit him... Literally. The Gummi Ship was attacked with hordes of heartless, each group more menacing than the last. Roxas shot most of them down, but the ship couldn't handle the incoming flow. He swerved out of the heartless filled area, wondering what had just happened.

Not knowing where to go or what to do, Roxas stopped the Gummi Ship and tried to think through the possibilities of heartless wanting to attack. He leaned his head back against the chair, counting off the ways on his fingers.

"Okay, let's see... We have me as prime possibility number one," He said aloud. "We also have an unexpected twist in the universe, maybe time travel or something along that nature, though I highly doubt that. Maybe Sora went and screwed something up after I left, that's always a possibility." Roxas sighed, worried about his friends and his home world. "I guess I'll just head to..." He left his sentence hanging. The Gummi Ship control board was flashing.

Confused and curious, Roxas pressed one of the blinking buttons. King Mickey appeared as a hologram, looking panicked. "Roxas, Roxas can you hear me?" The king asked.

"Yes, I can. Are you a hologram? I didn't know that Gummi Ships had these. This is so cool." Answered Roxas as he waved his hand through Mickey's holographic image.

"Roxas. This is not the time to be playing around with the equipment!"

"Yes your majesty," Roxas said, saluting the king.

"Listen, I need you to go to Hollow Bastion immediately. Most of the others are already there. Something isn't right and I need all of you together so I can tell you what's going on." The king looked frantic and he kept looking over his shoulder.

"I'm on my way. Are you okay King Mickey? Where are you? Do you need me to come and help you?" Roxas replied, setting the Gummi Ship's coordinates to the world.

"I'm fine Roxas, don't you worry. Just head on over to Hollow Bastion. When everyone's there, I'll let you all know what's happening." The King's image faltered and Roxas knew his contact with him was expiring. "Roxas, Hollow Bastion. Get there now. And hurry!" With that, the holograph flickered and the picture was gone.

"Well... I guess I better get over there." Roxas said to himself as he took the controls once again.

Roxas arrived shortly after his holographic encounter with the King. The Destiny Island crew hadn't showed up yet, and Cid had said that the others were in Merlin's house. Roxas talked to Cid for a while, then excused himself and ducked out of the Gummi Garage. Still not knowing exactly what to do, Roxas headed up to one of the upper towers.

Roxas sighed as he leaned back against the wall, his hands behind his head. What happened back there? He thought, thinking about Twilight Town. "Why did they even attack? I mean, yeah I'm prime target for the heartless, especially now, but no one else on that world did anything. There haven't been any heartless attacks in forever and suddenly this one comes up. But why?"

"Who knows Roxas. Could be anything that made them attack." Roxas jumped at the sound of the voice. He stood and turned to face the person talking to him, keyblades out at his sides. Riku was propped up against the side of tower, arms folded against his chest.

"Hey. No need to go all 'killer' on me." Said the silver-haired boy, his hands up in surrender.

"Was that really necessary?" Roxas questioned, letting his keyblades disappear.

Riku smiled. "Yes."

Roxas let out an annoyed breath. "What do you think happened anyways?"

"No idea. But you know Mickey, he'll probably have a good theory. Besides, we've defeated tons of heartless before and destroyed the darkness, this shouldn't be something we can't handle." Riku seemed content with the answer he gave and Roxas didn't have a better one. The two boys headed down to Merlin's house where the others were waiting.

"Hey Roxas. Long time no see," Sora said as the blonde entered the room.

"I know, it feels like I haven't seen you in years!" Roxas jokingly replied. He walked over to where Sora and Kairi were standing.

"So Roxas," Kairi started. "Do you think that our enemy is a brand new kind of darkness, or someone we've already battled?"

Roxas thought hard before answering, "I don't know, it has the elements of being familiar, yet it also could be brand new. I guess we'll just have to wait and see." Kairi nodded at Roxas' answer.

"Looks like we won't have to wait long." Riku said, coming towards the three of them. He pointed towards a screen that was in the front of the room. On it, King Mickey's image appeared.

"Oh good, you're all here." The King said, surveying the room. "As some of you may know, the darkness has started to rise again. It recently attacked Twilight Town, among other worlds, and we don't exactly know where it's headed next. Though we do have an idea. We've been monitoring an unusual source of untapped power. We had no clue what it was or if it was good or bad. Then finally, after months of following its movements, we found answers."

"Where is it?" Leon asked.

"Never mind that," Yuffie said eagerly. "What is it?"

King Mickey smiled at Yuffie while Leon shot her a glare. "Well, we don't exactly know what it is, but we found out that it's a good source of power, and it won't hurt us."

"So it didn't spark the attacks of darkness." Riku said thoughtfully.

"No, but we still don't know what did. We do know, however, where this source of power is. It's on a world named Elektra."

The group that had gathered inside Merlin's house all wore puzzled expressions.

"Ummmm... Where's this Elektra?" Kairi asked. "What's it like?"

"We're not entirely sure. It's towards the back of our galaxy, not much is known about it. That's why I want one of you to go and investigate both the power source and the world." The King looked at each one of the keybladers for what seemed like hours before saying, "Roxas."

Roxas, who had been staring at the ground dreading the name The King would call, whipped his head up at the screen. "Yes, King Mickey?"

"I'd like you to go investigate Elektra, along with the power source that lies within it."

"Me? Are you sure?" Roxas questioned, surprised that The King would pick him. "Wouldn't Sora or Riku be a better choice, their better with the keyblade than I am. And–" The King cut him off.

"Roxas, quit questioning my choosing of you. I believe you're well suited for this task. Don't worry, you'll do fine." The King looked behind him before adding quickly, "Set off tomorrow. The coordinates will be sent to you shortly. I have to go. Oh, and Roxas, remember this: Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foot in that door and keep it open. Good luck. I'll be in touch." With that, the screen went black and King Mickey's image was gone.

Cid got out of his seat and walked over to turn the machine off while Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith went to check in on restoration progress. Not soon after they left, Cid and Merlin followed in their footsteps, leaving the young keybladers by themselves.

Roxas went over to one of the printers and snatched Elektra's coordinates up in his hand. Walking back to the group, he examined the paper. _Man,_ he thought, _this is really far away_.

"So... What's new with you guys?" Sora asked, tired of the silence.

"Really Sora? That's the best you got?" Roxas said.

"Hey, at least I'm trying."

Kairi giggled, "Not very hard."

"Kairi! Not you too!" Sora cried. "I thought you were on my side. What happened?"

A huge grin spread across Kairi's face as Sora pouted. "You're not very nice Kairi. A real friend would be on my side."

Kairi rolled her eyes as Sora, still pouting, walked off. "Sora, you're such a baby." Sora wheeled back around.

"Kairi," he whined. "Stop it!"

Kairi laughed. The bickering and whining went on for a while, with Roxas and Riku shaking their heads.

Finally fed up with the couple's playful banter, the two bachelors walked out of Merlin's house. "How does King Mickey expect me to do this mission? You and Sora are more experienced than I am." Roxas told Riku.

"Well Roxas, he thinks you're suitable, he said so himself. Trust him. More importantly, trust yourself. If The King thinks you can do it, you should think so too." Riku ruffled Roxas' hair.

The blonde sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Riku smiled. "Of course I am." He said before walking off.

Roxas sighed, not very satisfied with any of the answers he had been given. But, he was going to have to do this either way, so he went back to the gummi ship to get some sleep.

**Author's Note: **Well? What do you think so far? You can let me know by leaving a review. ;-) The only pop culture reference was the quote Mickey said: "_Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foot in that door and keep it open_." It is by Arthur Pine and I thought it worked well overall because of the door reference. I'll be posting the next chapter (hopefully) on Saturday. So until then... Review, share with your friends, put this story on your alerts.


	2. Chapter 2: Elektra

**Author's Note: **Hello again! I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of _Once Upon A Keyblade._ First off, I'd like to thank all of you who have reviewed as of this posting, and anyone who has reviewed after this posting. Your reviews make me happy! Also, I didn't realize the Capitol was also used in The Hunger Games until just now, so that's not a pop culture reference. That's me forgetting details in amazing literature.

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts or ANY pop culture references that may appear. All I own is the plot, the original characters, and the original worlds.

**Chapter Two: Elektra**

Roxas pulled the gummi ship into Elektra's garage just as the engine failed. The ship dropped down into the bay, making a large crashing sound as it did.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A purple-haired woman, Roxas guessed she was about Yuffie's age, had walked over to see what all the commotion was about.

"Uh, my gummi ship... It kind of..." Roxas stopped, not really sure what exactly _had _happened to the gummi ship. "It just stopped... Working." The woman walked around the ship, surveying the damage. Roxas watched her as she moved her hand along the sides of the ship. She had grayish-purple hair, wore a pair of black pants, a dark green long-sleeve shirt, a gray vest, and black combat boots. She had her left ear pierced with a small silver chain-and-mallet type thing, which was just visible through her short, choppy hair.

"There doesn't seem to be any obvious signs of damage that could've caused it to fail. Just some damage from it landing so hard." She turned her head to look at Roxas. "Let's take a look inside, shall we?" Roxas nodded and went over to help her lift the hood of the ship. Smoke poured out from the engine, filling the garage. The woman waved her hand in front of her face, trying to get rid of the smoke.

"What did you _do_ to this poor thing? I don't even know how it lasted this long!"

Roxas shrugged. "To be honest, I don't know how it happened either."

The woman gave Roxas a look, then called over shoulder. "Hey Autumn! Come here for a second!" A moment later, a teenage girl came out from the back of the garage. She pulled a strand of her dark red hair out of her face and stuffed an old, dirty rag into her back pocket before saying, "What do ya need Allison?"

Allison nodded towards Roxas, who had his hands in his pockets and was looking down at the ground. "Show him a good place to stay. Judging by the looks of his ship, he'll be here a while." She turned back to Roxas and said, "Hey, kid. Go inside and get your stuff."

Roxas quickly went inside and looked around. He hadn't been expecting to stay here any longer than he needed to, so he really didn't bring anything with him. Roxas spotted an empty black backpack underneath a seat and snatched it up. He swung it over his shoulder and walked out of the gummi ship.

"Ready?" Autumn asked. Roxas nodded and followed her out of the garage and into Elektra's streets. Autumn spread out her arms and stood facing Roxas. "Welcome to Elektra. It's kinda small, but it's welcoming. Most of the time anyways." She sighed. "Um, what kind of place are you looking to stay at?"

Roxas thought for a minute while they both walked before saying, "I'm not sure. I didn't really plan on staying overnight. What do you recommend?"

Autumn stopped and looked around. "Depends. How much munny do you have?" Roxas dug in his pockets before replying.

"None."

The red head looked surprised. "None at all?"

Roxas shook his head. "Like I said, I hadn't really planned on staying. I was just kind of flying around."

"Well, I have no idea how you're gonna pay for the ship repair, but I think I can help with your lodging. You wanna stay with me? I have a guest room in my apartment and I wouldn't charge you rent."

Roxas considered his options. Maybe by staying with this Autumn girl, he could find something that would lead him to finding out the identity of the power source.

"Are you sure? I don't want to intrude..."

"It'll be fine, don't worry about it."

"Thanks." They continued walking towards Autumn's apartment building, mainly in silence unless Autumn was pointing something out.

"So, uh, Autumn. What exactly is Elektra's background history? I've never heard of it before." Autumn bent down and picked up a stone from the ground. She tossed it in between her hands before telling Roxas as much as she could about Elektra.

"Well, Elektra was part of this big world called Utopia, which was made up of 5 major parts." Autumn dropped the stone in her pants pocket and started motioning with her hands to describe the parts. "The bottom part of the world was simply called the Underground. Imagine a huge sewer, but with people actually living there. It was really dirty, and nearly all the homeless people in Utopia lived there."

"That's horrible!" Roxas said, disgusted.

"I know. But we couldn't do anything about it. It's the way things were." Autumn shrugged, continuing her description.

"Right above the Underground was the Downtown. That was where all the dance clubs, hot spots, etc. were. My favorite part was probably all the 'secret passage ways'. That's what I would call them anyways. The Downtown was completely full of all these hidden doorways and some of the alley ways had hollow trash compartments that led to certain places, like the basement of a run-down club, or the attic of a nearby apartment. The best part of the Downtown though, was night. All the lights were on and the clubs full, it lived up to its name more." Roxas noticed a twinkle in Autumn's eye as she talked about Utopia. He smiled, liking the way it seemed to fit her well.

"Right above the Downtown was the Gateway. That was where you passed to get to either the lower levels, the Underground and the Downtown, or the upper levels, the Governs or the Capitol. The Governs was were all the 'richie-rich' people lived. I've only been there once, but I was just passing through. It's buildings were gleaming white and the entire level was really, really clean. The Capitol was basically like the entire 'ruling' level. It's where all the senate members lived. That's where you went if you needed to talk to any of the government members, or... Um, get your punishment for a crime."

Roxas looked at Autumn as she looked down towards the ground, biting her lower lip. "I take it you know that a little too well." Roxas said, smiling as Autumn started blushing and stuttering.

"Well, I... Uh... Um, well, you see..." Roxas laughed as Autumn struggled for the words. "It was a little misunderstanding. That's all! Anyways," Autumn said, starting to get annoyed with the blonde, "it was a pretty peaceful place. The Capitol decided the rules, and the rest of the levels carried them out. Simple system. Then, about two years ago, Utopia kinda fell apart."

"What made it fall?" Roxas asked, hoping this might lead him to discover what caused the power source to flare up.

"Well, out of no where, the Capitol started passing some weird rules."

"What kind of weird rules?"

Autumn thought for a minute before replying. "Well they kept issuing things like, 'No self-expression unless it shows dark times.' or 'No creativity until further notice.' It was... Unlike the Capitol. They always seemed so supportive of individuality and things like that. Then it happened. One night, completely out of the blue, a huge, and trust me when I say this, I mean _huge_, black cloud of darkness came and engulfed Utopia."

"A huge black cloud?" Roxas asked, feeling he was definitely on the right track to finding the power source.

"Yeah," Autumn said. "It was really weird, seeing it. Something came out of it, the darkness I mean. It... It looked like a person. But, it was all black."

"Kind of like a giant shadow?" Roxas offered.

"Yeah! How'd you know that?"

"I've... Been in your place before. So the darkness tore your world apart?"

Autumn nodded. "Yep. We tried to stop it, but we couldn't. One by one, it ripped each level away from each other and threw it farther into the galaxy. Everyone in the Downtown level gathered into this one dance club, it was the safe house for the Downtown level. When we all got out, the world was in ruins. Since then we've been rebuilding and trying to get in touch with the other levels, but to no avail."

"Wow." Roxas said, looking around Elektra's streets. "So is that why some of the buildings look like their parts are sliding off each other?"

Autumn laughed. "Yeah, we haven't been able to fix that just yet."

"I like it." Roxas said, once again surprising the red head. "It gives it characteristic, sets it apart from other places." Roxas turned his head towards Autumn, watching her smile.

"It does, doesn't it?" She looked at Roxas as he nodded.

"So, um. How did Elektra get its name?" Roxas asked.

"Oh, that's the name of the dance club we all crowded into. It was the only building unaffected by the darkness."

"Really? That's pretty cool."

"I guess." Autumn looked around in silence, until saying, "So, tell me about yourself."

"Uh..." Roxas started, not sure where to begin.

"Tell me things like your name," Autumn told him. "where you're from, how old you are, things like that."

"Okay." Roxas thought for a minute on what to say. "Well, my name's Roxas."

"Roxas?" Autumn asked. He nodded. "That's a pretty cool name."

"Thanks. Ummmm... I'm from Twilight Town, I'm 16." Roxas stopped, struggling with the words to say.

"I don't mean to make you nervous." Autumn said, chuckling at Roxas' nervousness. "Would it be easier if I asked you questions and you answered them?" Roxas nodded.

"Much easier. Sorry, I'm kinda quiet."

"It's okay, don't sweat it. Um, let's see... Do you have any siblings?"

Roxas hesitated, then said. "Yeah, well, kind of. A brother, named Sora."

"What do you mean 'kind of'?" Autumn asked.

"He's more like a... Step-brother?" Roxas said, not really knowing how to classify his relationship with Sora.

"Oh, okay. Does he live with you in Twilight Town?"

"No, he lives in Destiny Islands."

"I've never heard of it. Sounds pretty though."

Roxas nodded and smiled. "It is. But Twilight Town's sunsets are better."

"Oh really?" Autumn laughed. "A town's sunsets are better than a beach's? Aren't they the same sunset?"

"Yes and no. It all depends on what world you're on."

"Have you been to any other worlds?"

"Oh yeah, tons."

Autumn's face lit up. "What are they like?"

Roxas liked the way Autumn seemed to glow, and tried hard to keep the expression on her face. "Well, each one has its own characteristics. None of them look the same."

"I've always wanted to travel to other worlds. But they seem so far away." Autumn put her hands into her jacket pockets and stared at the surrounding buildings.

Roxas turned his head to see Autumn as he walked. "Actually, they're not as far away as you think."

"Really? How far are they?"

Roxas stopped walking and looked up at the sky. It was a pinkish-purple, indicating sunset was coming. He pointed towards a star just above the peak of a tower. "See that star right there?" He looked to make sure Autumn could see it. She nodded. "That's a world."

"So each star... represents a world?" Autumn asked, amazed.

"Yeah and if a star goes out..." Roxas stopped and scanned the sky, bracing for the worst.

"What happens if the star goes out?" Autumn asked, scanning the sky along side Roxas.

"If the star goes out, the world's been consumed by the darkness." Roxas grew grim as he saw one disappear right before his eyes. _They're getting faster, _he thought. _I have to find this power source. _

Next to him, Autumn gasped. "Did it just..."

"Disappear?" Roxas asked. Autumn nodded. "Yep."

"So the darkness is attacking?"

"Yep."

"How long 'til it comes here?"

"No telling, it might not come here at all. You might get lucky."

Autumn sighed. "I hope it doesn't. We don't need any more chaos." Autumn looked towards the ground, then back at the sky.

"Hey," Roxas said gently. He wasn't really good at being comforting, ask anyone, but he had to try. "I know how you feel, trust me. If it does happen to attack, you'll all be safe. You'll just end up on a different world."

"Really? We just... Get dropped off somewhere else?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Autumn looked shocked. "We don't even get a fighting chance? That's _so_ not fair! We should at least get an opportunity to protect ourselves!"

Roxas stopped walking to take in this girl. He couldn't quite... Read her. At first she seemed shy, but now, she was letting show a fiery personality.

"Well," Roxas started, trying to describe to Autumn the process more detailed. "Yes and no. To answer your question, I mean. It's kind of hard to explain. You may get a chance, and you may not. It all depends."

Roxas could tell that Autumn wasn't to keen on that idea, so he changed the subject. "So, um, you work at that garage?" Autumn nodded.

"Yeah, the Gummi Garage. It pays pretty well. Up until recently, anyways." She responded.

"What do you mean?" Roxas asked, hoping this would lead him closer to the power source. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, but was some how held onto this world. There was something keeping him here. Yet he didn't know why or how. _Maybe it's the power source,_ he thought.

"Well it still pays really well, but..." Roxas gave her a look, so she went on. "About a week ago a girl's hair caught on caught on fire in the science lab. I was the one sitting next to her, so I was blamed. But, her hair didn't just catch on fire. While trying to put out the flames, she accidently knocked over a flask of highly flammable liquid which spilled, caught fire, and set the entire building into flames. I was blamed because they thought I had intentionally set her hair aflame."

By now the two had reached a row of matching dark green buildings. Roxas assumed they were all apartment complexes. "So to pay for the damages you supposedly caused, the money is taken out of your paycheck."

Autumn threw her hands back into her jacket pocket. "Yep."

After a while of silence and slow steps, Roxas spoke up. "...Did you?" He asked.

"Did I what?" Autumn replied, sounding agitated.

"Set her hair on fire?"

"No! I..." Autumn left her sentence hanging. She stopped walking. "I didn't do anything, okay? The people here are just incredibly stupid and blamed me because I was sitting next to her!" Autumn picked up her pace and started for one of the buildings to her right.

"Hey! Wait up!" Roxas reached Autumn just as she flung open the door to an extremely jagged looking building. He caught her arm before she could enter. "Hey,"

"What?" Autumn snapped. She wasn't having a very good week, and this spiky haired blonde didn't help matters any. She needed desperately someone to confide in, but at that very moment in time, she was short.

"Hey! Don't get mad at me. The only thing I did was ask a question. You don't need to get all testy." Autumn and Roxas stared into each other's eyes, his hand still griping her arm.

"Oh don't mind Autumn. She's just a little short-tempered."

The two looked towards the hallway to see a girl around their age with long brown hair and a chunk of blue colored bangs hanging in front of her left eye. She blew the bangs out of her face, but they came right back to where they were before. Behind her stood another girl, this one having bright pink hair that fell around her face in ringlets.

"Who do we have here?" The brunette asked Autumn. The pink haired girl chuckled silently at the misery Autumn's face showed.

Autumn sighed, shrugged Roxas off of her, and brushed off her pants. "Roxas, this is Quen," She said pointing to the brunette, "and this is Crystal." She gestured to the pink haired teen.

"Quen, Crystal, this is Roxas. His Gummi Ship totally crashed so I'm letting him stay with me until it's fixed." Quen and Crystal looked at each other, then to Roxas, who was standing awkwardly off to the side with his hands in his pockets.

"Cool." Quen said finally. She let Autumn and Roxas step in front of her and Crystal, then followed them to Autumn's apartment.

**Author's Note: **No pop culture references were used in the making of this chapter. Thank you again for reading! Review? Oh, and Quen is short for Quenevere, and pronounved just like Gwen.


End file.
